Pours pitch black with a 2 finger pillowy brown head and nice lacing. Smells of coffee, chocolate, dark roasted malts and molasses. Taste is excellent. First there is a mere hint of bitterness before the molasses comes through. Molasses is the dominant flavor although roasted malts are also prevalent. Dark chocolate and coffee notes are also present. Great mouthfeel. Great thick body while not being chewy. Drinkability is excellent. This is one of my favorites.

This is a 550 mL bottle served in a weizen glass. The stout is near room temperature.

A: The stout is pitch black, no ruby red hints, no nothing. There is a light brown head that is fairly small.

S: The ale has a strong chocolate aroma with hints of lactose sweetness.

T: The flavor here is very reserved, completely unlike any US RIS beers. There is a semi-sweet lactose flavor and hints of chocolate, both of which provide a pleasantly strong flavor. Hops are practically non-existent.

M: The stout is a very refreshing take on the RIS variety.

D: The stout is very drinkable with a mid-range abv. This is a good stout for those who don't like the American over-hopped types.

Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout is black in color with a hint red when held to a light. Its tan head was 3 fingers thick with good retention and some lacing. It smelled of roasted grain with a hint of alcohol. The taste was fantastic with rosted grain lots of malt flavor and that hint of alcohol. This medium-full bodied beer disapeared rather quickly out my glass. This is an excellent beer.

Pours pitch black with a huge tan head that sticks all over the glass. Aroma is sweet with dark fruits, molasses and a rum like alchohol smell. Mouthfeel is very smooth and creamy that lets you know from the beginning that it is going to be a superb beer. Taste is roasty with coffee and bitter chocolate that finishes with a nice firm hop bitterness. Wow, this is a wonderfully crafted brew from an exceptional brewery! A masterpiece without a doubt!

T - Mellower taste (for a stout) than it first appears by sight, but still a very rich flavor. Malty goodnes to be sure, choc/coffee again, sorgum, sweet, then turning dry slowly with a pretty clean finish, maybe a little licorice. Very slight alcohol taste, well hidden by the overall level of flavors.

M - Very smooth. Thick and creamy.

D - Very, very tasty brew. Filling also. A couple of these and i'm happy.

Samuel Smith Imperial stout poured into a snifter, a nice dark black color with a carmel colored 1 inch head that leaves nice fat sticky lacing. Smell is of sweet dark chocloate with hints of roasted nuts. Taste is of a smooth mellow malted barley with hints of roasted nuts, very well balanced not bitterness with a hint of alchohol burn. I could drink this fine offering all day long very well balanced and goes with a nice meal, one of my favorites.

Didn't realize the bottle was clear until I popped the cap. This is a good thing. Smell is fairly bitter and chocolaty. Poured into a glass I found at the thrift store, wide hollow stemmed wine glass type thing, 3 inches of dark brown head, subsided to about a half inch. Taste to me is incredibly complex. Red wine depths, with chocolate and coffee overtones. Little bit of hops at the back. This one is a bit syrupy for me, though, I imagine a draft might smooth her out a bit. I can't see drinking more than one of these at a time, but I really do seem to enjoy the imperials.

So smooth. First sip is tangy hops, a flash of herbal bitterness and dusty cocoa powder, quickly followed by a sweet malt, roasted, toasted and round. Raisins, caramel.The sweetness lingers. Alcohol shows up and buzzes around the tongue, but it's not too forward. Bitterness returns, but this time dry and citric, slowly sliding towards a cocoa and dark fruit aftertaste. Jeepers. The tastes develop slowly and the finish is long.

Pours jet black, with the slightest hints of deep red around the base of the glass, and builds a much larger deep tan head than I had expected, which dissipates and leaves almost no lacing fairly quickly. Smell is a bit light, with chocolate and dark fruits apparent, but a bit of an off note too, likely due to the clear bottle. How a brewery of Samuel Smith's tradition and repute could even think about clear glass is beyond me, but I digress. Taste gets back on track. Rich and full, with a heavy fruitiness containing notes of cherry, plum, and raisin coming alongside burnt chocolate and a lovely hint of brandy and port wine. The roasted bitterness in the finish goes on forever, thanks in great measure to the thick, rounded body. Drinkability is great. Top notch, without a doubt.

Presentation: great label, "contractors to her majesty's forces," perfect for an imperial stout.

Appearance: pitch black, one finger dark tan head - probably the darkest colored head i've seen in a beer. good retention, but little lacing.

Smell: roast, chocolate, perhaps a little sourness in the aroma. from the aroma, i anticipate some bitterness as well. a little sweet-smelling towards the end.

Taste: wow, that's good. lots of complexity, picking out individual flavors is going to be tougher than usual: slightly sweet/fruity at the tip of the tongue, bitterness in the middle. some caramel character. dark fruit finish, resolving to a dry, bitter aftertaste. very enjoyable. this is a stout where the bitterness is from hops, not burnt grain. it's roast, but not charred. surprisingly fruity, maybe that's because it's an english rather than american yeast.

Mouthfeel: lighter than I expected, medium body, not particularly thick. this definitely isn't what i expected from an "imperial" stout, but i like it. i'll need to try another one soon to compare.

Drinkability: A highly drinkable stout, though a bit surprising! Best i've had so far (still many good ones to go, though!)

this is the 3rd sammy smith i've tried and to be honest, i don't see what all the hype about them is. i wasn't impressed at all. it reminded me of a guiness and i can't stand guinness. guinness is a bad impression of a good beer. anyways, here goes:

A:black but not opaque, a little bit of ruby highlights. huge toffee colored head that slowly fades. thin film of head sticks around.

S: bitter burnt chocolate with coffee and dried dark fruits. a lot more alcohol than i expected.

T: all i'm getting is coffee/toffee up front. didn't notice much change as it warmed up.

Large clear bottle. Poured to a dark black color, with thick, pillowy tan head. Good lacing. Try as I might, I got very little aroma of any sort. Taste of a malty chocolate, with hints of caramel. Early on, the finish was slightly watery. However, this became much smoother and good at mid-bottle, and at the end, the 7.0% had kicked in just enough to make for a very good finish. While not my favorite beer, it is my favorite Samuel Smith, to date.

What kind of water is used to make this beer? Clean as dormitory at a college for maids. Freshly ground coffee, bitter dark chocolate, heavy cream, vanilla bean, butterscotch, roasted caramel malt, anise, and some clover honey.

Smooth and creamy mouthfeel. Great finish as well. Could drink this stout all day.

This is really easy to find in my area, but for some reason I never tried it until a friend brought it to a poker game. It was so damn good, the only knock is that I swore I detected a slight skunk in the beer, but I was this only one.

The color was black with a thin head and it had a massive aroma of sweet malts. The flavor was chocolate, roast malts, and just a touch of coffee. The body was thick and creamy, with a nice coating ability.

The first Imperial Stout I ever had was one of these bad boys. I have come a long way since then but this is still a beer I will revisit. Pours dark as dark can be with a slight tan head that goes rather quick. The smell is of roasted malt sweetness with just a hint fo hops. The alcohol is so hidden it might as well not exsist, but the beer is a lovely soft roastedness mocha cocoa. Very smooth and drinkable.

It had a rich, earthy smell. I'm still new to stouts, so I don't know how to describe it exactly. It was easy to tell this was going to be quite different from Guinness.

The taste is excellent. Very deep and rich. Wonderful malt taste with a good bit of hop bite. If good coffee and ale had a love child, this would be it.

Drinkability - Ha! Well, while writing this review and not paying attention to my sips, I have drank the better part of a 335 ml. It is so drinkable you have to make sure you don't suck it all down in one gulp!

"Imperial Stout" was the kind of beer which was shipped to the russian nobility some 100+ years ago ... it seems that russian taste tends to go for strong bodied drinks with a certain sweetness .... most "imperial stouts" I know tend to accentuate the sweetness, sometimes with a "sticky tendency" ... compared to those this brew is "ultra brut" and with a medium to "slim" body ... but it's lack in corpulence is more than compensated with it's elegant smoothness ... to give you an image: this is like spotting a mysterious dark-haired beauty disguised in a porcelaine mask on the Carnival of Venice ... to die for

Poured very dark with almost half the pint glass appearing to be head at first. This has a bit of the rolling head that disappates like Guinness. But what was to come was completely different.

Aromas were hoppy and malty at the same time. The initial taste was similar to any other stout but then the hops came through and made this something different. Not like some of the other recent imperial stouts that blow your tounge off with hops, this was a good balance.

I still had my thick stout but there was extra flavor with the hops that gave me the blend of a fruity chocolate. This is a very well balanced imperial stout that I highly reccomend for any stout lover.

This is one of the most interesting imperial stouts I have had. The pour is dark brown, to black with a little mocha head. Aroma is of coffee and burnt chocolate, perhaps some roasted amalt and a hint of fruitiness. The taste is sweet, hints of coffee and caramel come thorugh. Little bitter aftertaste is perfectly balanced in this brew. First impression I got when tasting this beer is that it resembled the taste of wine, with the fruity taste that is present in this beer. Quite complex. Mouthfeel is extremely smooth. I would definitely recommend anyone to try this.